Sarahritchie17 Yesterday, I “attended” my first personal growth conference… and it was virtual. To be honest, I was a little skeptical at first of how a small business that specializes in live events could pull off a virtual 8-hour conference and still manage to build community between attendees, but I was impressed.
The Hollis Company managed to bring together hundreds of thousands of people representing over 65 countries yesterday in their first ever virtual conference, RISE Live x Courage. I’m still in awe at their ability to adapt their entire business model in such a short amount of time and find a way to inspire so many people. They even had an online gift shop, facebook forum to network with other attendees, recipes for lunch and cocktail hour, and 50+ page workbook for the event.
The day was jam-packed with top motivational speakers, lessons in courage and fear and finding your why, and dance parties to Whitney Houston and the Frozen II soundtrack. It was my kind of party.
But without any further ado, today, I wanted to share with you some of the notes I took (while I was not interpretive/Zumba dancing around my home office). The notes below are divided by speaker, so if something you read here resonates with you, I hope you’ll seek out more of that person’s content to learn more.
Side note: I was unable to watch the whole event yesterday, so I have 3 more speakers to watch tomorrow. There may be a part 2 to this post at a later date.
Rachel Hollis – Founder and CEO of The Hollis Company, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author and Speaker
“Perspective is the way you see the world around you, not based on your reality, but based on your life experiences… If you’ve lived through something hard, this is inconvenient, but not hard.”
The conference led off with Rachel Hollis talking about how her perspective in this time has been very different than her husband’s because they have experienced different levels of trauma throughout their lives up until now. I think it’s important to remember that people are going to have different reactions to the things going on in the world right now because everyone has a different perspective, and that’s okay. Respect that people see things through a different lens than you do.
The question ‘What if?’ can be answered with a limitless list of wild dreams if you have a growth mindset or it can be a list of all the things that could go wrong if you have a fixed mindset.
Make the choice to have a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset, and your potential will be exponential.
“Warriors train every day so that they can go into the battle they said they wanted… They expect to get their butt kicked, and when they get beat up, they use it to learn what to work on.”
She challenged us to look up warriors in our heritage because there is strength in knowing how your ancestors fought through hard times.
“Leadership isn’t for the faint of heart… there is a cost.”
Leadership means that you were entrusted with people to take care of whether times are good or bad. You can’t just give in when conditions aren’t ideal. People are relying on you.
“Leadership has nothing to do with a paycheck. You can continue to lead and show up for people and check-in and make sure they’re okay regardless of pay.”
A good reminder to anyone who had to lay off an employee recently or anyone who just hasn’t been in touch with their team enough.
Ed Mylett – Entrepreneur, Speaker, Bestselling Author
“The antidote of helplessness is helpful.”
If you’re feeling helpless right now, help someone else. Make masks, make music, make a phone call.
“Self-confidence = keep the promises you make to yourself”
Start with making small promises that you can keep and rewarding yourself when you achieve.
“More uncertainty = more happiness”
This blew my mind. I always thought that uncertainty was a bad thing, but Ed Mylett explained that life’s greatest joys happen when we feel most uncertain. Think about it:
- Child gets on bike for the first time
- Parents bring home first child
- Deciding on a college major
Britt Barron – Author, Speaker
“Courage is not allowing fear to have the final say”
Courage and fear coexist. You can’t just pick one, but you can decide which one affects your action or inaction.
“We do not need to know the end result to have hope.”
I have been waiting on and praying for clarity this year, and these words were the slap in the face I needed. We do not need to know what is going to happen, we just need to keep faith and hope and know that things aren’t over. There will be a tomorrow, and that is enough to hold onto hope for.
“It’s okay to have certainty about a dream in an uncertain time.”
You have permission to ceaselessly pursue that thing you’ve been working on in spite of everything seeming uncertain in the world.
Eric Thomas – Critically Acclaimed Author, Speaker, Educator, Pastor
“This is a season for leaders.”
We need leaders more than ever, and your leadership needs to intensify. This is what leaders train for, dream of, and plan for. This is an opportunity to apply what we learned in school, from books, and by attending conferences.
“Fear is a reaction, courage is a decision.” -Sir Winston Churchill
“We are courageous because we know we are prepared, we have a vision, and we are locked in on our goals.”
A flashlight doesn’t do much in the daytime, but when it’s dark, that’s when you need it.
John C. Maxwell – #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Coach, Speaker
“There are going to be habits formed in this time that are going to change our lives… Prepare today so that you don’t have to repair tomorrow.”
Be intentional about the habits you’re forming in this season. It takes about 30 days to make a habit, and most of us have been under stay home orders for about twice that time. Make sure the habits you’re making are ones that you can carry with you when things change again and that they’re habits that make you stronger.
“The seed of courage is belief in yourself.”
“The only proof of courage is action, not just the decision.”
You can’t just decide to have courage and automatically be a courageous person. Courage must be exercised repeatedly like a muscle.
“Letting fear win is like fertilizing weeds. Stop letting people fertilize weeds.”
I hope that maybe some of these notes and takeaways resonate with you as they did with me. I hope you can continue to find courage in tough times and continue to show up as the best leader you can be for the people who need you. There are so many blessings mixed into this cursed time, we just need to have the mindset to see them.
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Cheers!
Sarah
